Everyone is Mad at Katie Wilson
Gwendolyn Hart
Mayor Katie Wilson had a very stormy town hall on Friday, March 27. Around 150 people packed the “Town Hall On Security & Surveillance” to point out the obvious: Katie Wilson has abandoned all of her campaign promises. They demanded she fulfill her pledge to shut down the new surveillance camera program by Axon, a for-profit company that has made millions contracting with ICE & CBP.
What they got was a total rebuke. Wilson barely flinched as she gaslit the crowd, saying that she “hadn’t broken her campaign promises.” The whole room booed.
While the mayor had been forced to implement a “pause” on the camera rollout under pressure from the movement, she said the cameras will go up after the completion of a “data security audit” — and those around the Stadium District are going up immediately.
The mayor claimed that cameras are “not the main public safety strategy.” Cameras are simply a means to “free up police capacity”, acting as 24-hour patrol cars. Tellingly, it is the Seattle Police Department’s lobbying that was the only source the mayor quoted in justifying pushing through the cameras.
When directly asked whether cameras would make her feel any safer, she admitted “No” to a room of jeers and boos.
In response, the movement took to city hall again on Tuesday, March 31 following up on the rally there the week before. Labor Militant and the American Party of Labor mobilized to public comment, which was delayed by a ceremony where the city council congratulated themselves for formally acknowledging Transgender Day of Visibility.
But when public comment came, speakers called this out as a hollow gesture, covering up for their lack of real action against the attacks on the transgender community and against ICE terror.
If we want this city council to do anything for us, we need to escalate the pressure of the movement on them. Labor Militant is calling for a mass mobilization to city hall the Tuesday after May Day, to pack city council chambers with 100 people on May 5.